A capacitor is an electronics component that has two conductive plates and an electric field between the two conductive plates. When the plates are charged, the capacitor electrostatically stores energy between the two plates. A capacitor is characterized by its capacitance, which is related to the amount of electric charge on each plate divided by the voltage potential difference between the plates. Capacitive sensing is a technology which measures changes in capacitance and uses the changes to infer information about the environment near a capacitive sensor.